128 pages : 24 cm

This book traces the history of the fashionable body shape and the ways that women and men have reshaped their figures to obtain the outline decreed by the current fashion. Our silhouette has been changed by our clothes and, particularly, by our undergarments. The wearing of some of these undergarments has involved varying degrees of pain and inconvenience for the sake of looking attractive. There are two main ways we have altered our body shape: "paring down" by compression of the rib cage with tight corsets, and "adding on" with padding and the use of appliances. While women have used both methods of altering their body line, men have generally used the more comfortable method of adding on. This book investigates how our ideal of the perfect figure has changed through the ages and the lengths to which people have gone to achieve this ideal

Translation of Onze lijn door de tijd

Egypt -- The pre-Christian east -- Greece -- Rome -- Roman Empire -- the east (after A.D. 395) -- The early middle ages (up to 1200) -- The late middle ages (1200-1500) -- The Renaissance (1599-1615) -- Baroque (1615-1715) -- Rococo (1715-1790) -- Empire (1790-1815) -- Post empire (1815-1849) -- Crinolines and hoopskirts (1850-1867) -- Bustles and emancipation (1867-1890) -- Reform (1890-1914) -- The slender 'line' (1914-1930) -- Cosmetic surgery -- The German influence (1930-1945) -- After 1945 -- Up-to-date

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